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Fraud victim out $900

A North Bay woman is out $900 after falling victim to an online job scam.

North Bay police said a city resident looking for work posted her resume on an employment website that matches job seekers with job advertisers.

The woman was contacted by an “employer” who offered her working cleaning a home in the city.

Before meeting the employer or starting work, the victim was told that if she wanted the job she had to first provide personal information, including banking details.

The scammer then sent her a $2,500 cheque as an advance payment and told the victim to deposit it into her account, which she did.

The scammer then asked the victim to send a “security deposit” of more than $900 to New Mexico through a money transfer service. After she did this, the victim discovered the original cheque she had deposited was counterfeit and that her bank cancelled it.

The victim contacted North Bay police to report the fraud.

Police say that due to the nature of these types of international scams, there is little law enforcement agencies can do to track down these culprits, who use fake names, generic email addresses, postal box addresses and money transfer services to conduct their fraudulent activities.

The victim lost her “security deposit” money and faced having to pay bank fees associated with her deposit of the counterfeit cheque.